Time Management Tip Book

Get Everything Done - Mark Forster
Book Review

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In 'Get Everything Done And Still Have Time To Play', he argues that most time management methods don't work - at least they don't work for him.

How can you possibly get everything done if you have too much stuff on your 'to do' list?

Before getting down to time management techniques, Mark suggests that we first list out our commitments. Then, next to each commitment we need to estimate how much of our time would be needed each week to 'do them all properly'. We then compare the total time needed to the time we actually have each week.

If your commitments outstrip your time available you have two choices: cut down your commitments or admit that you can't do everything as well as you would like. In fact Mark doesn't give the second choice - he says cut down until your commitments fit into your available time.

While I don't agree with all the advice in this book, I like the fresh approach it takes. Mark Forster admits that commonly used tips like 'to do lists' simply don't work for him. He has investigated why that is, and he comes up with his improved solutions.

Although the book is not that well known, you can see from the readers' comments on Amazon that Mark Forster's ideas have worked very well for some people. To me there are several very useful ideas in the book from the point of view of achieving your goals:

First, there is the need to cut down 'impossible commitments'.
Second, is the approach of saying NO to new commitments - unless you have spare capacity, or you drop an existing commitment.
Third, Mark Forster points out that the task is not to manage our time - it is to manage our attention.
Fourth, he suggests the best idea I've seen for fitting into your schedule the 'free flow' tasks like emails, phonecalls, filing, clearing the Intray and so on.
Fifth, he provides an excellent exercise for strengthening our mental discipline.

So many time management tip books present the same old ideas - or are too vague to be of practical use in achieving goals. In my view, Mark Forster's book is well worth a try, particularly if you've tried a lot of other techniques and found them wanting. It's not the full story but some of the ideas are excellent.

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